Speedball: Pure Adrenaline

23/01/2017

Play paintball at its highest level

What is Speedball?

The last time you came at Paintball Mirabel, were you impressed by the infernal sound emitted by constant paintballs hitting a large inflatable balloon? You thus stopped by this colourful playground arena and witnessed intense players clashing face to face such as gladiators. But what are they doing actually and why waste so many paintballs?

Speedball is the highest level of competition you can take part in when it comes to the marvellous sport that is paintball. You play on a turf field with regulatory dimensions, symmetrical and very restricted area and supervised by referees who will not hesitate to stick a penalty on your team if you infringe a rule during the game.

­Speedball can seem strict at first sight, however, since every match proceeds very quickly and the number of paintballs used is simply extraordinary, ruling is important for the security of the players to be able to compete in this framed environment.

How is a match structured?

The course of a Speedball competitive match can be slightly different according to the event, the tournament or the league it involves. In fact, what can differ most of the times is the number of players present on the field, the duration of a match, the regulation of the velocity of the markers and the comprehension level of the game by the players. The referee's indulgence level varies depending on the rank of the teams but in spite of these variations, the course of the match and events remains the same.

First of all, the players are invited to enter the field and test their marker's velocity in order to make sure that all the players respect the regulation set up for the event in question. Thereafter, all members of both teams will have to join the start zones located at each ends of the field. Once all the participants are in place, a countdown is launched and no one can move before the game starts.

When the start is given, all the players will have to then move quickly to cover their position and mark their targets according to a strategy determined by the team before the beginning of the match. Covered by the infernal sound produced by the impact of the paintballs on the bunker balloons, the players must communicate as a team (generally by code names) to reveal the positioning of the opposing team players and if they are marked or not.

There are two ways to win rounds in a speedball match: the complete elimination of the opposing team or to capture the center flag and carry it to the opposing team's start zone.

Player position and roles

Just like any competitive team sport, the positioning of each players of a formation is important. The arena is divided by different shape of balloons called bunkers each named by their shapes like: “doritos”, “snake”, “xbox” with numbers to represent the row.

The smaller and faster players will be more likely to play a forward position, because they will have to move quickly without being hit while the back player role is to create what is called a line of paintballs in order to cover their teammates and prevent the adversary participants from advancing to important positions.

Although their roles are different, the objective as a team remains the same: they must eliminate the opposing team while remaining alive and keeping track of other players or bring back the flag into the enemy starting zone. This demands extreme focus and communication because a speedball match can turn very quickly.

Local league MIPL

The MIPL league (Mirabel Impact Paintball League) is the local league which you can have the chance to observe at Paintball Mirabel. Several levels of competition are actively participating in this league according to the rank and talent of each players in a team. Here are all the divisions of the MIPL as well as the regulations for each of those ranks :

D5 : Division of introduction to Speedball, the players present in this league do not have or have little experience in paintball. It is about a league for beginner bearing the goal to make the sport well know.

D4 : Division beginner, here the players have a bit more experience and will start to take part in tournaments with 3 vs 3 format. On this level, it is allowed to count a player per team who has taken part in a maximum of two other events in the past.

D3 :D3 division is a level more advanced than D2, because the majority of the players have one to five years of tournament experience. The usual format for this division is five against five and matches are played much faster due to high strategic comprehension. If the team wins on a regular basis, it will be migrated towards the D2 division.

D2 : D2 division is an intermediate level, being used as filter zone between rookie, amateur and professional levels. The players participating at this level generally have several years of experience and know each technical aspects of the sport.

Now you know how a game of Speedball is played between two competitive teams as well as the basic rules of a tournament match. The next level is to come watch and maybe you would have the guts to participate in tryout events! In order to tease your desire to come play speedball on the turf, here is a cumulative of the best pictures of Speedball shot at Paintball Mirabel.